Growing Up And Growing Apart
by homesweethomicide13
Summary: AU. Naruto and Kiba were best friends when they were younger. However as time went on, and they entered the world of Genin ninja, they began to grow apart. Can they rekindle their friendship despite the drastic changes in both their characters?
1. Kiba Meets Naruto

**Title:** Growing Up And Growing Apart

**Author:** homesweethomicide13, BelieveIt

**Rating:** T

**Pairing:** Hinted InoKiba, NaruSaku, one-sided SasuNaru, ShikaKiba (latter two, in later chapters)

**Disclaimer:** I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If I owned Naruto you'd know about it. The script would be rather different. (Like, Kiba would have won in the chuunin preliminary match against Naruto...) However I don't, so... Naruto's safe for now.

**Summary:** AU. Naruto and Kiba were best friends when they were young. However, as time went on and they entered the world of Genin ninja, they began to grow apart. Can they rekindle their friendship despite the drastic changes in both their characters?

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**Growing Up And Growing Apart**

_Kiba / Naruto Friendship_

Chapter 1: Kiba Meets Naruto, Kiba's PoV.

"AHAHA! KIBA!" The joyous, laughing voice cried out as its owner fell backwards into a particularly large pile of mud. I watched as she laughed hysterically, mud dripping down her face, her clothes caked in the stuff. I glanced down at myself, in a very similar state. Too late I realized that taking my eyes off her was a bad mistake. The next thing I knew, I was face-first in the mud beside her.

"Ah, Ino!" I complained, pulling my face free of the brown mess and running the back of my sleeve across my eyes. It came away mud-streaked. I grinned at her as I lifted myself up, kneeling down in the muck. I ran a single finger down over my cheek, exposing a red triangular shape, a sharp contrast to my pale skin. I then raised the mud-covered finger to Ino's face, and wiped it down the bridge of her nose, leaving a dirty smudge.

Ino and I had been friends since the two of us were merely toddlers. We had met in this very forest, three years ago. I had been chasing my best friend, Akamaru, and had run into her. Everything just hit off from there. She knew from the red markings on either of my cheeks that I was part of the Inuzuka clan. I learnt that her name meant 'wild boar', and that she loved to play in the mud. This appealed to me, as I also loved to play in the mud, being rather dog-like. And so our friendship began.

Akamaru was sat on the grass bordering this particular patch of mud, wagging his small tail and occasionally yipping at me, demanding to be allowed to play. But my mother, Tsume, had told me not to let Akamaru get dirty, seeing as she would be the one to clean him. And so I ignored his demands and pushed Ino down further into the mud. These mud-fights of ours were her best-kept secret. As Ino had gotten older, she had begun to get more and more into her looks, and hung around with the 'in' crowd. She couldn't let her new, popular friends know that she played in the mud with an Inuzuka boy. I didn't mind, though. It was still fun.

"Oh damn," Ino sighed suddenly. "I promised my mom that I'd help in the flower shop today. I have to go Kiba, is that okay?" She stood up, holding out a hand to me. I took it and stood also.

"Sure, you gonna be here tomorrow?" I know I sounded hopeful. But at seven years old, I still had very few friends, choosing to befriend my clan's dogs than actual humans. Ino was possibly the closest friend I had.

"Maybe. Probably." Ino smiled, and hugged me. It resulted in both of us getting even muddier, since we were both covered in mud. As she ran off through the forest, waving at me over her head, I pulled my filthy sandals out of the muck and walked over to Akamaru, who yipped happily. I scratched his ear affectionately, and went to grab my jacket. However, as I leant down, something caught my eye. It was a young boy, about my age, wearing an orange-yellow shirt and brown shorts. He also wore the traditional blue sandals, meaning he was a training ninja. I straightened up, rubbing the sleeve of my beige shirt, knowing I must look an incredibly strange sight. My light blue shorts were caked in mud, as were my legs and my sandals.

"Hi." I smiled. The boy looked surprised, as if no one had ever acknowledged his presence before. I looked at his face, and noticed the three whiskers on either cheek. I rubbed at my own markings self-consciously.

"Hi." He said quietly.

"I'm Kiba." I grinned. "What's your name?" He looked uncertain for a moment, but then he smiled, faintly.

"Naruto." Beside me, Akamaru barked in annoyance.

"Oh, yeah. And this is my best friend Akamaru." I picked up the small white dog and held him out to the boy, whose smile grew and he came closer, petting Akamaru on the head. Akamaru yipped happily and nuzzled the boy's hand. I grinned again. "He likes you." I studied him more closely, knowing I'd seen him somewhere before, but didn't know where. "So, what are you doing out here?"

"Walking. I got bored at home, and Iruka-sensei won't be back until late tonight." I realized then just where I'd seen him before. He was the kid that all the adults regarded with fear and hatred. Iruka Umino was the only one who actually showed interest and respect for him. I'd also seen this boy with another loner – Sasuke Uchiha, whom I knew was thriving to be just like his older brother Itachi. He was the best in his class, at everything.

"Don't you have friends to play with?" I knew the moment I'd spoken that I shouldn't have opened my mouth. His blue eyes darkened and a saddened expression crossed his face.

"No one ever wants to play with me. Sasuke only likes training. He doesn't want to play." His voice was heavily laden with sadness, and I wanted to hug him, but I didn't. Instead, I gave him my best grin – not at all nervous about showing my fangs – and put Akamaru on his head.

"You can play with me, if you like. I don't have many human friends." Naruto looked up at me in surprise, and a smile quickly spread across his face. His eyes sparkled and watered, and the next thing I knew, I had a little blonde boy attached to my waist.

"Thank you Kiba, I'd like that."

And thus my friendship with Naruto began. I found out a lot about him that day – I knew he was Naruto Uzumaki, that he was the same age as me, and that he absolutely adored ramen. I had quite a taste for it myself, however I much preferred Akamaru's dog food. This of course always made my sister Hana laugh. She always told me that I was too dog-like for my own good. It was still pretty late in the afternoon when I finally worked up the courage to ask him if he wanted to do the one thing I loved the most…

"Hey, Naruto… you wanna play in the mud?" I watched as a puzzled expression crossed his face.

"Why would I wanna do that?" My heart sank. "Is that what kids do?" I realized that Naruto didn't really know how to play. Then again, having Sasuke as his only friend, I could understand that. Sasuke was all about training, not about playing.

"It's what me and Ino do."

"Who's Ino?" I grinned.

"She's my best friend!" Akamaru barked. "Next to Akamaru, of course." I set the dog down on the grass once more, next to my jacket. "So, you wanna play in the mud? It's real fun! Watch!" A grabbed ahold of the rope dangling from the tree branch directly above the mud patch and walked someway away from the mud. Grinning at Naruto, I jumped into the air, swinging down over the mud. When I was just about over the center, I dropped my legs down, my feet landing squarely in the biggest patch of mud ever, splashing mud in all directions and once again coating my legs and shorts in it. I balanced myself and held out the rope to him. "You try it."

"Okay," Naruto grabbed the rope and copied my motion, his feet sliding when they came into contact with the mud. He swung around wildly, mud splashing everywhere, a grin on his face. He steadied himself and grinned at me. "Wow, that is fun!" Without another thought he ran to do it again. This time he slid along a little lower, and lost his grip on the rope, landing ass-down in the thick mud. Mud now covered his shorts, shirt and legs. He looked rather surprised, but after a moment he grinned up at me.

It was at this point that I didn't quite understand why the adults seemed to fear him. To me, he was a normal kid who liked having fun. Sure, he didn't have parents, but that was the only difference between him and me right? My thoughts were cut short as a clump of mud hit my face. Naruto sat there, grinning cheekily, one hand still raised, coated in mud. I wiped the mud from my face and threw myself down next to him, feeling the cold mud against my knees. I shoved both my hands into the muck, grabbing a fist-full of mud in each hand. In one movement, I pulled my hands free and shoved both of them into Naruto's face, pushing him backwards into the mud. He burst out laughing as he straightened up, ready with mud in his hands.

Now, Ino and I had plenty of mud fights, but none of them quite compared to this. See, Ino would complain if I got it in her hair, or underneath her clothes. Naruto didn't care where the mud went, so long as he was having fun. By the time we were too exhausted to continue, I had mud in places I didn't know existed. We fell back together in the mud, and I felt cold wetness on the back of my neck. My parents were going to kill me for getting so dirty, but what did they expect from a pup like me?

"I better go home soon, my mom might get worried if I'm out too late." I sighed. I didn't want to go home, but I knew that if I didn't come home for dinner then she'd send Kuromaru out to find me, and my mom's dog scared me. So I reluctantly stood up and helped Naruto to his feet. "Hey, do you wanna do this again tomorrow? You might meet Ino… but she might not be here tomorrow." I watched his saddened expression change to one of happiness and he nodded vigorously.

"Sure, I'd like that Kiba-san." My eyes widened at the name he had given me. I grinned back at him and pulled him into a muddy hug.

"Bye for now Naruto-chan!" I picked up my simple brown jacket and pulled it on over my muddy clothes, before settling Akamaru on top of my head. With another wave at Naruto, I took off through the forest.


	2. Naruto Meets Kiba

_Author's Note: This is the second chapter, as written by BelieveIt. Enjoy! Third chapter is under construction :)._

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**Chapter 2: Kiba Meets Naruto, Naruto's PoV. **

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"AHAHA! KIBA!" I heard followed by a splashing noise which suggested someone was pushed into the mud from behind the trees I was sitting on. 

They must be having so much fun, "Lucky them, all I have is stupid Sasuke who's only interested in training." I grumbled to myself. "Stupid Sasuke." I heard various joyous shouting and laughing from behind the trees, I tried to ignore it but it was so hard, I wanted to know what was going on.

So here I was spying on two people, one boy and one girl, who I didn't know at all, having the time of their life.

They were playing in mud just as I'd previously thought.

The girl had short white blonde hair and shiny light blue eyes; I had seen her hanging around with Sakura and what I liked to call the 'in crowd'. She was wearing her regular blue top and skirt with the exception that today they were completely covered in mud. The boy had spiky-ish brown hair and had a pair of unusual markings on either side of his cheeks – he had one identical triangle on each cheek – which in my opinion was a sharp contrast as he had quite pale skin. He was a bit taller than the girl. He was wearing a beige shirt and although his shorts were absolutely caked in much I could just about see that he was wearing light blue shorts and same with his shoes – I could also see they were a shade of blue. They both looked around my age.

I watched them as they pushed each other into the mud and rolled around in it and just generally having fun laughing at each other's mud covered state.

I suddenly heard a bark coming from near them. I looked around the area they were in and, sure enough, I saw a little white dog lying down on the grass next to a brown jacket. It must have been the boy's dog, as I'd never seen the girl around with a dog before. Both the girl and the boy ignored the small dog's barks and carried on playing in the mud.

After a while I saw the two people talking, I couldn't make out what they were saying to each other I was too far away, when the girl stood up offering a hand to her companion, he took it and stood up as well. They carried on talking; the boy said something with a hopeful look written across his face. The girl replied and hugged him, they got even dirtier because of they already muddied state rubbing on each other.

"I wish I had someone would hug me or something like that, they must be good friends, they might even be going out." I mumbled inaudibly to myself.

The girl ran off into the forest and I saw the boy pull his filthy sandals out of the muck and walk over to the small white dog, who yipped at the boy. He scratched the dog's ear affectionately. It was obvious that the dog was very special to him. He went to grab what I assumed to be his brown jacket but as he went to grab it he looked in my direction and I realised he had seen me. I didn't think he would actually talk to me so I kind of just stood there trying to pretend I hadn't been spying. I don't think he suspected anything. He straightened up, rubbing the sleeve of his beige shirt.

I started to think randomly to myself about how nice it would be to have a friend who wasn't all about training and someone who would be willing to play with me.

"Hi." I looked up surprised when I heard the voice of the boy speaking, I looked around to see who he was speaking to but realised I was the only other person here. I was debating if I should reply or just ignore him and I decided that it would be no harm to reply.

"Hi." I replied somewhat quietly and self-consciously.

"I'm Kiba." He grinned. "What's your name?"

Ahh, so Kiba's his name. I just realised he'd asked for my name as well. Should I tell him? What if he knows about what people have said and runs off? Well at least I'd know his reaction.

"Naruto." Beside Kiba the small dog barked in what seemed to be annoyance.

"Oh yeah. And this is my best friend Akamaru." He picked up the small white dog and held him out to me, my smile grew and I came closer, my hand outstretched, petting Akamaru on the head. Akamaru yipped happily and nuzzled my small hand. Kiba grinned again. "He likes you." I watched Kiba study me more closely, I didn't have a clue what he was thinking but his expression changed every so often. "So, what are you doing out here?"

Oh no. I can't let him know I've been spying on him. He'll hate me and probably call me a freak or something mean like that. Oh! I know what to say.

"Walking. I got bored at home, and Iruka-sensei won't be back until late tonight." Kiba suddenly looked like he had figured something important out.

"Don't you have friends to play with?" Ouch. That hurt, I tried to hide my sadness but I couldn't, I hurt to much knowing that I didn't have any friends to play with and soon enough he'd know I had no friends and go off to his friends thinking I was a waste of time.

"No one ever wants to play with me. Sasuke only likes training. He doesn't want to play." I knew I sounded sad, but wouldn't you? I was just waiting for him to say something like 'oh you're a loner then', and walk off but instead I got a totally different reaction.

He gave me a big grin -he had fangs- and put his dog Akamaru on my head.

"You can play with me, if you like. I don't have many human friends." I looked up at him in surprise, and a smile quickly spread across my face. I could sense my eyes sparkled and watered, and the next thing I knew, I had my small arms attached to his waist.

"Thank you Kiba, I'd like that."

And thus my friendship with Kiba began. I found out a lot about him that day – I now knew his name was Kiba Inuzuka, that he was the same age as me, and that he preferred dog food to ramen. I had never had tried dog food but I absolutely loved ramen, it was my favourite food ever! His love for dog food always made his sister Hana laugh. She always told him that he was too dog-like for his own good. It was still pretty late in the afternoon when he asked me if I wanted to…

"Hey, Naruto you wanna play in the mud?" A puzzled expression crossed my face.

"Why would I wanna do that?" I didn't understand. "Is that what kids do?" Sasuke was my only friend; Sasuke was all about training, not about playing.

"It's what me and Ino do."

"Who's Ino?" He grinned.

"She's my best friend!" Akamaru barked. "Next to Akamaru, of course." Kiba set the dog down on the grass once more, next to his jacket. "So, you wanna play in the mud? It's real fun! Watch!" Kiba grabbed a rope that was dangling from the tree branch directly above the mud patch and walked someway away from the mud. Grinning at me, he jumped into the air, swinging down over the mud. When he was just about over the centre, he dropped his legs down, his feet landing squarely in the biggest patch of mud ever, splashing mud in all directions and once again coating his legs and shorts in it. He balanced himself quickly and held out the rope to me. "You try it."

"Okay," I grabbed the rope and tried as best as I could to copy his motion, my feet sliding when they came into contact with the mud. I swung around wildly, mud splashing everywhere, a grin on my face. I steadied myself and grinned at my new friend. "Wow! That is fun!" Without another thought I ran to do it again. This time I thought Id try slide along a little lower, but it didn't actually go as planned and I lost my grip on the rope, landing ass-down in the thick mud. Mud now covered my shorts, shirt and legs. I have looked rather surprised, as that was how I felt, but after a moment I grinned up at Kiba.

I watched as Kiba went deep into thought about something and decided to make him even dirtier. I grinned mischievously to myself thinking of what to do.

His thoughts were cut short as a clump of mud hit his face. I just sat there, grinning cheekily, one hand still raised, coated in mud. He wiped the mud from his face and threw himself down next to me; he must have felt the cold mud against his knees. He shoved both his hands into the muck, grabbing a fist-full of mud in each hand. In one movement, he pulled his hands free and shoved both of them into my face, pushing me backwards into the mud. I burst out laughing as I straightened up, ready with a load of mud in my hands.

I didn't care where the mud went, so long as I was having fun. By the time we were too exhausted to continue, we both had mud in places I didn't know existed. We fell back together in the mud, and I felt cold wetness on the back of my neck, as I'm sure did Kiba.

"I better go home soon; my mom might get worried if I'm out too late." He sighed. I guessed Kiba didn't want to go home. I watched as Kiba reluctantly stood up and helped me to my feet. "Hey, do you wanna do this again tomorrow? You might meet Ino… but she might not be here tomorrow." My previous saddened expression change to one of happiness and I nodded vigorously.

"Sure, I'd like that Kiba-san." His eyes widened at the name I had given Him. Kiba grinned back at me and pulled me into a muddy hug.

"Bye for now Naruto-chan!" he picked up his simple brown jacket and pulled it on over his filthy, muddy clothes, before settling Akamaru on top of his head. And with another wave at me, he took off through the forest.


End file.
